Sheriff Kilpatrick doesn't carry a gun, but is well-known for his belief in pacifist methods. One day, 4 outlaws come into his town, led by Frank Brand. When the foursome murder Kilpatrick's wife and son, he decides violence is the way to go about things after all, and chases them into Mexico. In Mexico, he encounters a federale' named Guitierrez, who is also chasing Brand, who is wanted for murder in Mexico. But Guitierrez strongly believes in justice and due process, and is chasing Brand do he can bring him in, not kill him. So the two lawmen are chasing the same guy while battling each other over legal theory.

Read what you like into the whole morality/violence/due process debate (A response to Vietnam? A response to Dirty Harry? A response to Westerns?... And I got a kick over how in the movie, it is the lawman from Mexico lecturing the one from America about due process Bottom line for me is, I had no interest in this morality debate, but as a chase/action movie goes, there's a lot of fun to be had here.

This movie is obviously very spag-influenced, you may find the violence at times gratuitous. I have no idea how in hell this movie was only rated PG, and this in 1973 (just three years before Taxi Driver was nearly rated X for the shootout; what saved the X rating was Scorcese masking the color in that final scene so the blood wouldn't look quite so real). In The Deadly Trackers, there is lots of crudeness and violence, and there is a major shootout in a convent – another thing definitely spag-influenced, the intertwining of Catholicism and violence.

One of the best things about this movie is the cinematography. It's very stylized and incredibly done, the camerawork is just wonderful.

So, roll your eyes and laugh through the morality and legality stuff, this a fun chase Western.

Someone once described these late 60's/early 70's AW's as something like "poor American-made imitations of poor Italian-made imitations of American-made movies." Take out the "poor," and this is what you have here

I am reading in reviews that the music, though credited to "Fred Steiner" is actually Jerry Fielding's score for The Wild Bunch. Not the same songs re-orchestrated, but the exact same tracks! (See the next post for some of the reviews).

Saw the movie on dvd; it's part of a twin bill with Man in the Wilderness.

« : May 23, 2013, 05:11:09 AM drinkanddestroy »

There are three types of people in the world, my friend: those who can add, and those who can't.

The story for this movie was written by Sam Fuller, who was the original director. He started filming the movie, which was then called Riata, but had "artistic differences" and was fired, and then Brian Shear was brought in to direct the new film, from scratch.

Now I'm having some fun reading the critics' reviews linked to on imdb. They range from loved it to hated it.

A senseless, violent, bloody mess that makes Sam Peckinpah look like Walt Disney in comparison. Originally conceived and directed by Sam Fuller, the studio allowed him to shoot over $1 million worth of footage until he was fired because of "artistic" differences with the film's egotistical star, Harris, who simply wouldn't take direction from him. The studio then scrapped all the footage, hired Shear to replace Fuller, and started over. The result is a lame tale wherein Harris, a gentle sheriff, seeks revenge on renegade outlaws, led by Taylor, who had senselessly (and on-screen) slaughtered his family. He spends most of the movie hunting down Taylor and his gang until he finally eliminates them in an extended, bloody climax where everyone is killed (including Harris). Harris is awful as he alternately whispers or shouts his lines while committing gory acts more horrible than those of the killers he's tracking. By the time it came to score the film, the studio didn't feel like sinking any more cash into the project, so it just borrowed Jerry Fielding's brilliant score for Peckinpah's masterpiece THE WILD BUNCH (1969) and stuck it in during the most inane passages of this fiasco. While the film may be bad, swiping Fielding's best work for this trash is a sin.

Richard Harris, who has appeared in quite a few westerns for being from across the Atlantic, tackles another role with gusto in this hard hitting 1973 film.

Harris is Kilpatrick, a pacifist sheriff in a Texas town. Rod Taylor and his gang rob the bank, kill a few people, and get set to ride off with the loot. Harris blocks their departure with a system the town has rigged up so as not to kill anyone, just capture them. He does not believe in guns, and only shoots to injure and scare, not kill. Taylor and the gang kill Harris' wife and child, and ride away, with Harris on their trail. He does not let that pesky Mexican border deter him either, as he rides on through and meets another lawman a lot like him.

Al Lettieri plays Gutierrez, who is also after Taylor. However, Gutierrez's pacifism comes to annoy the viewer as well as Harris. The Mexican sheriff is insistent on letting justice prevail, always looking for witnesses, and never just going after and killing the bloodthirsty gang. Harris begins to catch up to the gang, and dispatches them one by one, until he finally is down to two. He is also on his last nerve, as he finally gives in to his gun's quick justice. The climactic shootout in the convent, where Harris finds himself on the same level as Taylor, is very moving.

Despite the (PG) rating, this is one violent film. Once the viewer overcomes this, they are definitely in for a wild ride. Harris is great as the vengeful sheriff who will not die, and brings the same intensity to this that he showed in the "A Man Called Horse" series. Rod Taylor goes down in western film history as one of the meanest villains on celluloid. One great scene has him describe how he murdered his father, as even his jaded gang looks at him in horror.

In the outlaw gang- William Smith, who seems to have been in everything and you will recognize him the minute you see him, does well as the seemingly retarded Schoolboy. Neville Brand is good as Choo Choo, who earned that nickname because he has a section of rail where his hand was. Paul Benjamin is great as Jacob, a very intelligent black man who uses his wits to outsmart the rest of the gang, but cannot get past how others feel about his color.

As mentioned before, the cast is great except for the character of Gutierrez. Eventually, he became a thorn in the side of Harris and the audience. He never seemed to get what Harris was trying to do, and adhered so closely to the law that he became annoying. His final murderous act is more frustrating than noble.

Shear's direction is okay, once in a while I would notice the shadow of a camera in an outdoor scene. His decision to use still shots from the movie in the opening credits might have people checking the pause button on their VCR, and I am not sure why he did this. His actions scenes are good, with good stuntwork, but again, be forewarned of the violence, especially directed toward children.

Despite an awkward title, "The Deadly Trackers" is good adult western fare that probably should have received more praise than it has- especially for Taylor and Harris. I highly recommend it. (* * * * *) out of five stars.

I watched it once a very long time ago from a fullscreen VHS. It was a weak film then, one which is imo not influenced by SWs (I generally think that SWs had apart from Eastwood's westerns about zero influence on US Westerns), but is a typical violent and pessimistic US Western in the wake of The Wild Bunch.

But I'm interested to check my view on the film. But it is tricky to get a watchable copy here.

I watched it once a very long time ago from a fullscreen VHS. It was a weak film then, one which is imo not influenced by SWs (I generally think that SWs had apart from Eastwood's westerns about zero influence on US Westerns), but is a typical violent and pessimistic US Western in the wake of The Wild Bunch.

But I'm interested to check my view on the film. But it is tricky to get a watchable copy here.

The Wild Bunch itself was influenced by spags, specifically Leone.

In The Deadly Trackers, you have the outlandish violence and lots of blood, the Texas/Mexico setting, insane crudeness and vulgarity, like in the scene where the gang is stuffing their faces with the food in the old Mexican couple's hut, whorehouses, Catholic imagery, specifically the Catholic imagery is interwoven in the violence, with the shootout taking place in the convent. (The only thing which is very anti-spag is the whole morality/legality debate!) You can debate whether it's spag-influenced, or The Wild Bunch-influenced, whether it's imitating the spags or imitating the American movies that imitated the spags; but the point is that it is the sort of Western that is particular to the late-60's/early 70's.

RE: the movie's availability: I don't know about Europe, but here in America, the movie is available on a double-sided dvd; the other side is Man in the Wilderness (1971), another Western with Richard Harris. The dvd is available cheaply on Amazon, which lists it as Region 1 http://www.amazon.com/Man-Wilderness-The-Deadly-Trackers/dp/B00132D7Y0I rented the dvd from Netflix; the image quality is very good on The Deadly Trackers; I am in middle of Man in the Wilderness; the 22 minutes I have seen so far look real good as well. There are no bonus features for either movie. Audio/Subtitles are the same for both movies: The only audio available is English mono. Optional subtitles are available in English, French, and Spanish.

---------------------------

As an aside, RE: the matter of spags' violence, crudeness, vulgarity, outlandishness, etc. I just wanna say that when people talk about the spag violence, IMO there is a very big difference between Leone spags and non-Leone spags. Although the Leone films may have had violence and crudeness way beyond what was seen in prior AW's, IMO the non-Leone spags took the outlandishness to a whole new insane level. (And unlike some of the other spags, I don't think any of the violence in Leone's movies gratuitous). If you look at movies like Django, The Big Gundown, Death Rides a Horse, and particularly The Mercenary the levels of crudeness/violence/outlandishness (which I will call "CVO") are way beyond the Leone films. Of course, they may have been influenced by the CVO in Leone's films, but they took it not just a step further, but ten steps further.

Just as people say that there is a clear difference in CVO between the AW's that came before the mid-60's and the SW's/AW's from the mid-60's onward, I believe there is a clear difference in CVO between the Leone spags and the non-Leone spags (which I will abbreviate to "NLS").

I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with using the general term "spag-influence"; I use that term all the time. (And of course, there are plenty of unique spag features other than CVO, and in those, the Leone spags perhaps might be indeed similar to the NLS). I'm just saying that even when we use the general term "spag-influence," IMO the CVO of the NLS I've seen is in a whole other category than the CVO of Leone's films.

p.s. those 4 movies I mentioned -- The Big Gundown, Death Rides a Horse, Django, and The Mercenary -- are the only NLS I have ever seen. That's not a great sample size, however, but it seems to me, from reading these boards, that those 4 are the most famous NLS, or very nearly so. And since pretty much all of them contain these characteristics I am mentioning, I think it's fair for me to make these generalized statements about NLS. I mean, it's possible that I just happened to have seen the 4 most outlandish NLS, and the others are calm in comparison, but I don't assume that's the case

(btw, in this discussion, I am not including comedies, like the Trinity movies).

« : May 23, 2013, 07:17:02 AM drinkanddestroy »

There are three types of people in the world, my friend: those who can add, and those who can't.

I think it's fair for me to make these generalized statements about NLS. I mean, it's possible that I just happened to have seen the 4 most outlandish NLS, and the others are calm in comparison, but I don't assume that's the case

(btw, in this discussion, I am not including comedies, like the Trinity movies).

Aaaaaah not quite, The Big Gundown, Death Rides a Horse, The Mercenary are relatively normal compared to Django, and the 600 or so really CVO other NLS. Check out A Bullet For The General, Tepepa, Face To Face, Companeos, Cemetery Without Crosses, Run Man Run, if they are rent-able.

"When you feel that rope tighten on your neck you can feel the devil bite your ass"!

I don't think that TWB has any visible or obvious SW influence. Probably zero SW influence.

Quote

In The Deadly Trackers, you have the outlandish violence and lots of blood, the Texas/Mexico setting, insane crudeness and vulgarity, like in the scene where the gang is stuffing their faces with the food in the old Mexican couple's hut, whorehouses, Catholic imagery, specifically the Catholic imagery is interwoven in the violence, with the shootout taking place in the convent. (The only thing which is very anti-spag is the whole morality/legality debate!) You can debate whether it's spag-influenced, or The Wild Bunch-influenced, whether it's imitating the spags or imitating the American movies that imitated the spags; but the point is that it is the sort of Western that is particular to the late-60's/early 70's.

I have to re-watch this one to answer this for this film, but it surely is a typical 70s western by containing "outlandish violence and lots of blood, the Texas/Mexico setting, insane crudeness and vulgarity", for which no US-Western needed any SW influence. If you watch some important westerns from every year from 1960 up to 1967 you will notice that the US Western had enough influence of its own. Not to mention other US genre films of these years.

I think that most US directors did not watch SWs cause they simply despised them, they did not take them serious. Not even the ones by Leone. And these were the only ones which got at least some attention. But maybe only for their then sadistic violence.

But Peckinpah liked Leone, he watched FOD and said in 1969 "it was very light and enjoyable" and that Leone "is absolutely marvellous". But he also said that FOD was the only SW he watched.

I read somewhere or heard in some audio commentary that Peckinpah said Leone's work helped violence to become something acceptable in mainstream movies. He added that he wouldn't have been able to go that far in TWB without previous Leone films. So this is more about Leone and SW having an influence on society and the industry about what can be displayed on the big screen than about Leone influencing Peckinpah as a director and an artist.

I read somewhere or heard in some audio commentary that Peckinpah said Leone's work helped violence to become something acceptable in mainstream movies. He added that he wouldn't have been able to go that far in TWB without previous Leone films. So this is more about Leone and SW having an influence on society and the industry about what can be displayed on the big screen than about Leone influencing Peckinpah as a director and an artist.

Yes this is what I remember also.

"When you feel that rope tighten on your neck you can feel the devil bite your ass"!

Leone surely helped pushing the limits for screen violence. He was an innovator of film violence, but he wasn't the only one. When the Dollar films were released in the USA in 1967 there were probably more discussions about Bonnie and Clyde and the Dirty Dozen.

There were other European genre films by Bava, Corbucci or Melville, there were several Japanese films, which were not that popular amongst a western audience, but fillmmakers were aware of them. Not only by Kurosawa (just remember the giant blood fountain of Sanjuro) but also others like Masaki Kobayashi's Seppuku (1962).

And there was Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968) and the early splatter film by Herrschel Gordon Lewis like Blood Feast (1963) and 2000 Maniacs (1964).

Peckinpah fell through with Major Dundee, for which the producer felt he was filming gore, and cut it (nearly) all out. In 1964 Hollywood wasn't ready for explicit violence and lots of blood. But Peckinpah's different approach towards filming violence was already visible in his TV series The westerner (1960) and in his other early westerns. The opening shot of The Deadly Companions (1961) would have been deemed as SW influenced if made in the late 60s.

I'm not saying you can see spag stuff in Peckinpah, but Peckinpah wouldn't have been able to do all the stuff he did without Leone having come before him -- and Peckinpah himself said as much.

I'm no authority on what came first, the chicken or the egg or the chicken or the egg or the chicken or the egg -- but in a nutshell, what I am saying is that IMO there is a certain style of Western that appeared in late '60's/early '70's, and The Deadly Trackers fits into that style. That's all. (Of course, that is not to say that all the Westerns of that period were of the style I am talking about; I'm just saying that there was a specific style that did appear in some Westerns during this period, and The Deadly Trackers was of that style).

There are three types of people in the world, my friend: those who can add, and those who can't.

Yes, The Deadly Trackers is a typical 70s western, which is not a great surprise considering that it is a 70s western.

But that style did not appear out of nothing. Of course there was a certain explosion of more violence and sex in the late 60s due to a faster than usual vanishing of censorship. But all these 70s films had a lot of forerunners throughout the 60s, which had a lot of forerunners in the 50s etc. There is a clear evolution line of developing themes and styles which leads step by step from Stagecoach (1939) to The Shootist (1976) (or to Heaven's Gate). Or if you want from The Great Train Robbery (1903) to the present.My point is that the US western of the late 60s and the 70s wouldn't be different (or only slightly different) if there never were any SWs made. Well, maybe less dusters. Only Clint Eastwood's westerns are clearly rooted in his Leone collaboration. And maybe a few others of minor importance.

Peckinpah and Leone made films which really were a great step forward. But if Leone and Peckinpah hadn't made this step, others would have done that for them. Most likely less artistic, and maybe less personal, but most things they achieved would have come anyway, only a few months (or maybe years) later. But both made films of a great individuality, and with a great visual power, and for that there wouldn't have been other films to substitute them.

the violence and blood may have been caused by the breakdown in the Production Code (or, some will argue that the Production Code was finished because of all this violence; another chicken/egg question), but I am not talking here merely about the violence and blood. What I am referring to as the characteristic of Westerns of this period was also a certain level of extreme outrageousness. It goes way beyond just the violence and blood.

Like Neville Brand having a rail for a hand. Like the scene where he's eating the watermelon with the rail, and the rest of the gang is eating the fruit.

I don't think you saw that sort of outrageousness in the AW's that came before the Spag Era. I think the spags brought a whole new outrageousness to the Western -- as I mentioned previously, films like Django, The Mercenary, Death Rides a Horse, The Big Gundown, have an outrageousness, like people eating messily and a crude sense of humor, grotesque faces, etc. that may hve begun with the Leone films but they took it to another whole level, and then I think the subsequent AW's started copying some of those characteristics.

I don't think this sort of stuff appeared in AW's that came before the late-60's. I suppose that you could make the argument that, since that was the time that censorship ended, maybe that stuff would have shown up in AW's even if spags never would have existed. Who knows what would have happened. But IMO the spags introduced that to the Western, and then some subsequent AW's (for better or worse) used some of these techniques.

There are three types of people in the world, my friend: those who can add, and those who can't.

the violence and blood may have been caused by the breakdown in the Production Code (or, some will argue that the Production Code was finished because of all this violence; another chicken/egg question), but I am not talking here merely about the violence and blood. What I am referring to as the characteristic of Westerns of this period was also a certain level of extreme outrageousness. It goes way beyond just the violence and blood.

Like Neville Brand having a rail for a hand. Like the scene where he's eating the watermelon with the rail, and the rest of the gang is eating the fruit.

I don't think you saw that sort of outrageousness in the AW's that came before the Spag Era. I think the spags brought a whole new outrageousness to the Western -- as I mentioned previously, films like Django, The Mercenary, Death Rides a Horse, The Big Gundown, have an outrageousness, like people eating messily and a crude sense of humor, grotesque faces, etc. that may hve begun with the Leone films but they took it to another whole level, and then I think the subsequent AW's started copying some of those characteristics.

I don't think this sort of stuff appeared in AW's that came before the late-60's. I suppose that you could make the argument that, since that was the time that censorship ended, maybe that stuff would have shown up in AW's even if spags never would have existed. Who knows what would have happened. But IMO the spags introduced that to the Western, and then some subsequent AW's (for better or worse) used some of these techniques.

TV Westerns of the late 50's started to have those elements of outrageousness check out Have Gun Will Travel on netflix.

« : May 29, 2013, 09:02:20 AM cigar joe »

"When you feel that rope tighten on your neck you can feel the devil bite your ass"!